Welcoming Winter 2010

 We've welcomed winter with festivities and family and lots of fun. Now we're settling in to the season-- but i'm not ready to see all the christmas lights come down just yet.  This was the first year we formally celebrated the winter calendar by observing the "advent spiral" that many waldorf families use to count-down to the solstice.  Each night we lit a candle (one the first week, two the second, and on), and said a verse focused on which part of the earth we were celebrating-- rocks, plants, animals and humans.  The boys loved the candles and Silas in particular thrived on the ritual.  Although there were nights sibling bickering continued throughout.

We enjoyed an awesome thanksgiving week which included 3 days of solo crafting and elving time for me, and then a 4-day weekend with the entire family. We loved spending thanksgiving itself with our good friends-- friends we've celebrated almost every thanksgiving for the 9+ years we've lived in Chicago. Pretty amazing to gather together now that there are 5 children where there were none. It doesn't hurt that they can all play together in the basement for a good 20+ minutes without intervention.


I spent the month of December working through all the gifts i decided to make this year. I have to say that it was tons of fun, even though i've discovered that zippers are not my forte. I'll try to share some of the projects i tackled in a future post.

We celebrated the week of Christmas with both JT and i's family and enjoyed our first christmas with JT as an official cook. Someone asked me if JT's cooking has improved since cooking school and while i would say that technically he's definitely better, he has always cooked delicious food. What has changed is his ability to manage a kitchen, a meal, and kitchen clean-up. What used to turn into a harried "all hands-on deck" for the big meals has become a pretty orderly day of cooking. I think JT even took a nap this year before the big meal.


As we celebrated New Years with friends in Michigan, we had a super fun time to toast the year and even some quiet time for me to reflect on how it was not easy but we did make the transition to a family consuming less, producing more, and not all operating on a 9-5 schedule.  Plus there was tons of sledding (the first day at least) and a huge kids room for all the big uns to have a sleep-over in!

Halloween

Took a little while since i forgot my camera after Halloween, but here is our holiday recap! This was the best Halloween yet. Both boys were old enough to manage the steps on their own, be excited about trick-or-treating, and choose their own costumes. The both have little panda stuffed animals so some where along the way they came up with both of them being pandas. The more they talked about their costumes they created the plan that i was to be the Mama panda and JT was the "Grandpa Panda." Why not the Dad you might ask-- well naturally because that's Silas' role! We made simple costumes out of old black and white tshirts and the boys helped me sew them.


With Halloween on Sunday they got to wear their costumes three days in a row for their school assemblies and parties, a party at the Smerrys and then Halloween. We enjoyed a rain-free and relatively warm night for trick-or-treating. The kids were almost as excited to hand out candy as they were to get their own. We didn't stay out very long but between the parties and trick-or-treating they have quite the candy haul.


Now, a few more things appropos of nothing but needing to be chronicled. Henry has learned to whistle-- quite well in fact. He claims he can even whistle underwater you just can't hear it that well because of the bubbles. He told me he practices whistling underwater during swim practice-- something he's enjoying immensely. He has really great teachers and is so happy for the entire hour he can barely contain his excitement and regularly jumps up and down with glee. He's made huge strides since last year-- completely submerging his head, kicking his legs, working on doing strokes with straight arms, and generally coming right along. He's still the only one that he won't just jump in but all in good time.


Henry is also doing super-well at school. Constantly working on writing letters and reading words off of his "word wall." He continues to enjoy art and made his first purchase with his new allowance-- blue painters tape!


Silas is loving preschool and in general seems like he's settling in to life a little more. He still throws tantrums but they are considerably fewer and more far between. He still knee-jerk rejects anything new out of hand, but more often comes around quickly and says "i'm just joking i do want to...." He tells us just a little bit more about school than Henry does-- but we still don't get too many details. He continues to love music and enjoys all the songs that he's been learning-- "i'm a little teapot" and "here is thumpkin" are two new favorites.

Celebrating Spring

What a really wonderful weekend.  The beautiful weather, abundant sunshine, and warm enough temps to be outside just lolling around in the grass (oh wait that was Mason), recharged my batteries.  Sharing it with our family and friends made it that much more enjoyable.


Saturday JT worked at the restaurant of a private club downtown and the boys and i had a great time doing easter crafts, cleaning the house (no really) and in general just enjoying the day.  I don't think i even remember any tantrums that morning.  Which in itself is an Easter miracle.

After naps we headed out to our friends' house for some fellowship, a relaxed meal, and a really relaxing evening catching up.  JT was able to meet us out there and although Silas fought a bit about going to sleep over there-- he ultimately did and this time we didn't expose anyone to contagious illnesses.  Last time he had strep throat and we didn't realize it.  Woops-- that's one of my "parenting get out of jail free" cards.


Sunday the boys enjoyed finding their easter baskets and then did an egg hunt in the backyard with Kerala.  Kerala and Henry were very determined, but Henry is two years older, so he was a little quicker, and had slightly more strategy about where to look.  So Henry could barely lift his Easter basket at the end of the hunt, Kerala's was quite full as well and Silas, well...


Here's how it went for Silas.  He did agree to get dressed, so hey that was a great first step in my book.  He found an egg or two and got really excited to open them and find candy and a little bunny.  Then he decided that was good enough and he was ready to move on to the independent play section of the day.


We spent the next hour or so playing soccer, baseball and letting Silas and Kerala entertain us with their duos on the guitar.  Then we had a wonderful meal and more fun outside after naps.  Made for a truly wonderful celebration of spring and gave me a glimpse of some of the fun to come being outside this summer with the boys.

End of Year Festivities

Many of my readers were lucky enough to share either Christmas or New Years with us. We hosted our third year of both families visiting us in Chicago. The boys did awesome and had a ball at Christmas. As per usual they loved having all the family around to play with, read stories with, and generally supplement their already well-loved little lives. Silas has sometimes been overwhelmed with visitors so i was a little apprehensive about the number of visitors.


But actually he did great. Dinners at home were a bit touch and go but blessedly the night out everyone did great. And of course the highlight was Christmas Eve with new Christmas pajamas and Christmas morning with a huge abundance of gifts. We actually got everything opened in one day-- and for the first year ever, before naptime! I think a few highlights of the morning were Silas' new Dora DVD, the dollhouse Silas got and the trucks that you take apart and put back together with tools.


In addition to all the Christmas loot, JT's parents brought with them some toys my parents had saved for me that i thought the boys would appreciate. We've put together the doll bunkbeds and the highchair and along with the new kitchen, these implements seem to have helped the boys imagination take off. I'm trying to stoke the development however i can-- of course without seeming to. Last night they were pretending to go on a trip to see Africa and feeding their baby on the plane.


After we bid adieu to our family we headed out to Michigan City for a New Year's week with 4 other couples and families. The house was absolutely beautiful and the weather was warm enough we pretty easily got the boys out of the house for some gorgeous walks every day but the last day. We also planned art activities each day. This combined with the kids being a year older and generally able to play with each other for at least a bit on their own contributed to a fun and less exhausting trip this year.


As soon as we got to the Michigan house Silas started asking when we were going home. But as opposed to the trauma a trip seemed to stoke in Silas this summer, this time when i just answered "We'll go home on Saturday" he accepted it and seemed satisfied. Now he's been asking about when we'll go back. I bet by next year he'll be a real veteran!

The seeds of tradition

What with all the bellyaching i've been doing here lately i wanted to make sure to note in writing all the really sweet and wonderful things that have been happening around these parts, especially as we lead up to Christmas.

Although Henry has been a tad bit blase about Christmas decorations this year, i think it's only to tone down the shock and awe Silas expresses each time we see brilliant lights or favorite Frosty decorations. He literally squeals with delight and loudly requests which decorations we need to see on our drive home.

Both boys had a ball decorating the Christmas tree this year and were downright helpful-- no quotations needed. Henry also displayed some very serviceable wrapping skills and helped me wrap a full night's worth of gifts one weekend. It's taken a bit of planning and prodding from me, but both boys have made treasure boxes for each other in secret and seem to relish having a gift, especially a secret one, to give the other.

It's not always reverent but they heartily request to listen to watch and listen to the Christmas music box each night. Henry especially loves the story of how Gran and Nonna gave it to me the Christmas when Henry was still in my belly.

Henry has been dutifully counting the days to Christmas using the advent calender i made a few years ago. He's even patiently re-attached the little felt ornaments when Silas has blown in like a tornado.

And today we made a go at celebrating the Solstice. Especially with it being a fairly new special day i didn't try to do anything too dramatic. I'll pat myself right on the back for that one. We read a book on the solstice that i checked out from the library, then we said a little verse about the darkness, lit a few candles and talked about the light coming back. Then Henry suggested we blow out the candles which both boys loved. Voila-- small ceremony achieved. I get the sense we planted a seed and i hope we reap the benefit next year.

I promise to illustrate this post with pictures but that will mostly likely happen after the holidays. We're t-minus just a matter of hours until both sides of our family join us for an exuberant and joyful time at Christmas!

Christmas with a 2 and 4 year old

Christmas this year is fun in lots of new ways. This is the first year Silas is consciously involved in the unfolding of Christmas. And everything is a delight. The big snowflake street decorations, the twinkling lights on Christmas trees peeking through front windows, as well as all the decorations on our tree he can reach.

Henry is also into Christmas in a new way-- he remembers it of course, and trots out all manner of details of things that happened last Christmas that we haven't talked about since. He is also much more intrigued with Santa and seems to be wrapping his mind around the "magic" of Santa. We're setting out to write our letters to Santa this week and i'm curious to see what winds up in Henry's this year.

We're not in a bonafide "up-cycle" with both boys, but we've had a decent-enough string of days i think it's worth being positive and grateful for all the fun craziness the boys bring to our life. Silas' newest thing is loving to take all his clothes off. Mostly he does this indoors, but even still it's been FREEZING here and it gives me goosebumps just to see him naked walking around on our super-cold floors. He does run warmer than me to be sure, but it also seems like he has to be on the verge of hypothermia before he'll admit he's cold. Just to make things interesting he also now feels compelled to jump on the trampoline once all his clothes are off.

We have found a solution that's been working pretty well. He comes home, immediately wants to take all his clothes off, we agree he can do that and run around for a few minutes and then put on his warm fuzzy pajamas. We've accumulated several pairs of fuzzy footed pajamas and he really loves them. So he's being rather "un-Silas" about being persuaded to don them.

We're keeping up a pretty good pace with Christmas prep. We try to hold down outside commitments this time of year which allows us to be home, crafting, wrapping, cooking, and preparing to see our whole family. We can't wait!

Christmas Organizing

I had a query about how i prepare for Christmas-- when i start working on things, how i get organized etc. I thought this just might appeal to someone else so am drafting my response in the form of a blogpost.

First of all this is me we're talking about, so a spreadsheet looms large in this conversation. I actually now use google docs and have a gift giving spreadsheet that has data in in for the last 5 years. I have everyone listed in column A that i give gifts to. Then a new set of columns each year that detail my ideas, where i think the gift will come from, the budget for that person and the actual amount i spent on them. I color code them as i make progress on the list, bright green when they're all done, yellow when they're in-process or part-way done and white when they're not done at all.

Just to give some scope to my list versus your own gift needs, i have 28 rows on my spreadsheet. This includes the shopping i do for family and a few friends, as well as the gifts i buy for the kids on behalf of family that sends us money.

I generally start thinking about gift ideas for folks sometime in September. I do very little shopping at this point but begin mapping out ideas i have for each person on my list. More and more i strive for a mix of handmade and purchased gifts. I put a lot of thought into what each person would like. I use a combined method of asking for gift lists and then just thinking about what i know about that person, their interests, their taste-- and what i've been inspired by. I spend a fairly substantial chunk of time looking around on etsy and save ideas i have for others in my favorites.

I keep hand-written lists in a small notebook of all the hand-made projects i'm working on. I got underway with those by the beginning of November and have tried to work steadily on them in the evenings and during naptime on the weekends. I tend to cluster my purchased spending online, and do it right around Thanksgiving. There are great sales, still plenty of time to have things shipped, and then i can cross all my purchased gifts off my list and focus on what i'm still working away on by hand.

I can't reveal pictures of what i'm making this year because i don't want to spoil the surprise, but i'm making sure to take pictures of everything as i complete my projects so i can have a big handmade holiday wrap-up post!

How do you organize your gift-giving?

Giving Back

In the past six months or so i feel like i've stumbled on to some blogs that have made some pretty significant contributions in my life. There's no linear telling of the stumblings, but soulemama.com was probably the nexus. Her beautiful photographs and telling of her family life re-focused my energies and spurred me to explore positive parenting approaches, learn about waldorf education, bring crafts into life with the boys, and embrace sewing and handwork in a big way.

And the reason i'm telling you all of this is to say that beyond inspiration and new hobbies, reading soulemama and some of the other parenting blogs has helped develop a positive thought line running through my head. Many of them discuss in their blogs how grateful they are for what surrounds them-- even when things aren't going right. It really is infectious if you hear this kind of talk enough.

So while part of me is whining that i was so excited for this week off, several days to sew and shop and cook and be productive and that it's not fair to be sick, the other part of me is saying that i'm grateful i have three full days to rest if need-be, a laptop to watch movies on, listen to music and connect when i feel like it, and especially for the little boys that have become very adept and (usually) willing to pick up the downstairs when the toy explosion starts to reach the high-water mark.

I'm not having the morning i wanted (gym, shopping, and then massage); but i am having the morning that i need (in bed with the newspaper, the laptop, coffee and saving my energy for said massage.)

Wishing you and yours a grateful week!

Halloween 2009

We've had a great time prepping for and waiting to see exactly how Halloween was going to play out around these parts. Henry had decided pretty early he wanted to be a firefighter-- which was great, because we already had everything we needed for his costume. Except for some late in the day desires to be a whole bevvy of inanimate objects (a tree and a pillow are two that spring to mind) we were pretty prepared for Henry to have a smooth experience with Halloween.

We started talking early about Halloween with Silas, and particularly about dressing up. He wasn't very interested, but i figured it was weeks away so no rush. We didn't push but most times when we brought up Halloween and getting dressed in our costumes he used a particularly "Silas" tone of voice to indicate-- "no biggie, but i'm not getting dressed up." I know Silas well enough to know that he probably knew full well what he was going to do and was just stating it early. But part of me thought that as he learned more about Halloween and saw Henry and other kids in costume he'd get into the spirit.

We brought a few possible costumes upstairs to the playroom and Silas even put on a giraffe costume a few times. We talked a lot about the giraffe costume and 50% of the time he'd give it lip service. The other half of the time he'd re-emphasize that he wasn't dressing up.


On Friday, the day before Halloween, Henry's school had a Halloween assembly. Henry wore his costume to school, and Silas was excited and wanted to walk Henry to school before heading over to Ms. Brenda's. Surely this portends good things right?

Either way, the Halloween assembly was fun and Henry and all the other preschoolers (three classes on one stage and no one cried or fell off-- amazing!) did a great rendition of "five little pumpkins." Then they had a Halloween parade around the school and a short party where they got gobs of candy. (Quick aside, there were some candies we weren't familiar with printed only in spanish. One was some kind of lime gumball with chile powder flavor. I'm waiting for a report from JT on that one!)

So, on the day of Halloween i realized that we needed a "costume" that wasn't a costume, in case Silas really did balk. He's been favoring his "sheep coat" and his "bear hat" lately and i had already planned to put him in tan cords to form part of his giraffe costume. I was channeling Henry's bear costume a few years ago-- at least in my mind.


On Halloween we headed over to Tiffany and Mike's for the annual Halloween party. Since it wasn't a weekday the whole thing was decidedly more relaxed and laid-back than in past years. We ate some pizza and then started to work on getting all our costumes on. You guessed it, Silas was a no-go. Both Tiffany and Troy (very persuasive with the preschool crowd) tried to convince Silas to put on his giraffe costume, but he just said pretty firmly (and calmly) "no." So, we bundled into his sheep coat and bear hat and he was as happy as a clam. He loved trick-or-treating, wound up staying out later than Henry, who got cold and went back with an early group, and kept wanting to get "more treats." He even said trick-or-treat and thank-you at each house-- albeit in the wrong order.

And as a special gift to his parents, he and Henry climbed right into their sleeping bags, laid down and crashed out while we got to stay and enjoy the party with our friends. Wonderful Halloween-- even without the costume.

Meltdowns and Easter, thankfully not conjoined

From April 2009

So a mix of good and bad to write about. Let's get the bad out of the way. Friday was just about the worst number of hours our family has gone through (although these are certainly in the running, here, here and here.)

I picked the boys up from school per usual and things immediately went downhill. Silas was crying when i got there because two parents had come just before i arrived and he was upset that each one wasn't his mommy. Henry started misbehaving right away, running away from me, not heading up to the car etc. His interplay with Silas seems key to this afternoon going awry. I was irritated and trying to be authoritative which backfired-- on me of course.

I finally *wrestled* them both into their car seats and Silas proceeded to cry strongly the entire way home. Henry was upset too and kept telling Silas to be quiet. No attempts on my part to distract with music or sightings of trains worked at this point.

From April 2009

When we got home i attempted to "reset" the mood-- at least with Henry by apologizing for getting upset and saying that i was hoping we could start over now that we were home. Silas stopped crying and i thought things were looking up. Then we got out of the car and Henry purposely started stomping on the crocuses. I told him to go inside for a time out and he lost it. He stayed lost for approximately 1.5 hours.

Soon thereafter Silas also fell apart. He wanted crackers, he didn't want crackers, he wanted crackers, NO, NO, NO. At this point he also began sobbing and screaming hysterically.

From April 2009

For the next hour and a half JT and i each had one child on a different level of the house alternately disciplining, distracting, or comforting them. Nothing seemed to work and then as suddenly as the storm came it left. By about 7 both boys were happily playing after finally eating some semblance of dinner. JT and i just looked at each other shell-shocked.

In the midst of everything i called Brenda to find out if something happened at school. All she could come up with was that Silas did get upset waiting for me to pick them up and Henry didn't nap. She said there were only 5 of them there that day so they got plenty of attention and she didn't think anything escaped her notice. She even called back to check about an hour later after she had talked to her sister. Thankfully we were doing better by then.

From April 2009

Now that some time has past i think Silas was reaching a peak of his start (gulp) of the terrible twos. He wants what he wants when he wants it and he just lost the ability to calm himself down. I also think that Henry is sensitive to Silas and feeds off the negative or positive energy he exudes. Henry also seems more... threatened, challenged (?) by Silas now that he's becoming a "big boy" himself. We're trying to set aside more special time for Henry and have been emphasizing the good parts of their relationship to one another.

The upside was that every upset since this nuclear attack has seemed mild in comparison.

And now i'm about out of time. Easter was very nice. The boys woke me up Sunday morning and did a little egg hunt to find their easter baskets. They happily explored the contents (which i'll admit was a little practical this year) and then we headed over to Tiffany and Mike's for Easter brunch and an egg hunt. All the kids had fun finding the eggs but we were nice enough to give the littlest ones a head start.

From April 2009

Henry in particular had a great time and told me that he wanted Mario Race Cart for his birthday and a real fish tank. We talked about how he could have a fish tank when he was a little older and he said "yes, when i'm 8." He also told me that Tiffany could buy it for him when he's 8 so if you're reading this you're on notice :)

We're knee-deep in preparations for the boys "ill-timed" pirate party and a visit from Oma and Opa. I hope to have lots more to report and pictures up next week.

Holidays with Small Children, grand and exhausting

We were lucky enough to rap up another year with family visiting for Christmas and then a week-long trip with friends to a house in nearby MI for New Years. Both were fun and exhausting and i can't tell you how much more relaxing going back to work Monday morning felt. This is the first year that being off the boys' routine seemed to be a real factor to contend with.

I don't know if it was just coincidental or what but Henry has entered a very defiant phase in which he frequently says no to whatever is being suggested and often breaks down or gets mopey at the slightest hint of things not going his way. It takes a significant amount of parental effort not to lose it on an hourly basis and to balance funny and cajoling with "i mean it" discipline. It was hard to tell how much of his meltdowns over Christmas were due to being over stimulated and what was just this phase he's in. Anyhow the extra hands were appreciated and it was of course fun to see everyone open their gifts together. Unfortunately our visiting family took turns being sick during their stay but we all amazingly stayed well for the most part.


We spent New Year's week with three other couples with kids. It was mayhem and after all the kids were asleep a ton of fun. We had a few outings to the outlet mall and lots of games of hearts as well as a favorite ice cream treat called chunky monkeys. The boys had a short outing to the lake where they enjoyed tromping around on the snow covered sand and throwing stones into the snow.

Now that we're back to our routine we almost have our sleep schedules back to normal and the house somewhat put back together. I got a promotion at work that took effect Monday so i've been feeling my way through a job that's mostly known to me with some new challenges and JT is working on a case that looks slotted for trial. So we're busy and doing well and just hoping we have only light snowfall for a bit!

Christmas Prep

From December 2008

We're getting ready to welcome our families for Christmas and involved in prepping for that as well as helping the boys celebrate the season.

Henry has been really into the advent calendar that i made last year. He gets to put up a new felt ornament on the santa calendar every morning. He's been doing a great job remembering and we use it to count down the number of days to Christmas-- which showed me he can reliably count to 15 for example.

Tonight we made snowflakes and this weekend at our friends' annual Christmas party we're going to do a gift exchange and the kids get to make gingerbread houses which we've done most every year since Henry was born. It's fun to have these traditions with friends and family because it's a great way to mark time. When we first started the gingerbread houses i think there was Carys, Henry and Helen. Last year Silas was too little to participate and this year baby Walker will be sleeping nearby if i had to predict.

We've decided the keys to success doing "gingerbread" houses with very little folk is to a) use graham crackers (who has time to bake gingerbread), b) give each kid a baking sheet covered in tin foil, contains mess, is a nice base for the house and enables you to transport them back home when you're done. While Tab and i construct the houses and glue them together with icing we give each child a few graham crackers on their tray to ice and decorate. They can eat what they decorate and when they're done the house is usually dry enough to decorate.

From December 2008

By the way, we made some progress with soccer. Henry is still usually at the back of the class but he's loving it and i saw him make a goal right at the end when they each get to practice kicking the ball into the goal. We staved Silas off from his baby until after class and even though he whined through most of the games he asked for more after each one. I predict he'll tolerate more and more each week until he decides it's actually fun.

Vignettes

Henry and Silas are enrolled in soccer class for the winter and we had our first session on Saturday. I think the highlight for Silas was getting his uniform, although he momentarily put his bunny down long-enough to stack up the cones. As you might guess, the 18-24 month class is less about running and trying to kick the ball and more about playing games that are somehow soccer related. There was a lot of stomping on bubbles, ball play, and the parachute which seemed to scare all but the most dare devilish of the little ones.


Henry had a blast in his class which was his first "independent" class, i.e. Dad sat on the sideline and could have even brought coffee. Whenever i looked over Henry was at the back of the group but he loved it and seemed to have a coach paying him special attention. He's on the youngest end of the 3.5-5 year old class so i figure he's got a long time to get proficient running wind sprints and dribbling the ball.

Back to Silas and his bunny-- he's still very attached to bunny and rubbing it's ears against his nose is his primary means of falling asleep. But, now we've added another friend a little stuffed "baybee" that we're also carting around everywhere. I can't figure out if i've got a soft-spot for lovees or if Henry and Silas were just more attached to their transitional objects. Either way my pockets are overstuffed.


We got the Christmas tree up this weekend as well as the lighted garland we put up outside. When Henry asked about the garland and i told him what we were doing he replied, "garland is my favorite color!" He test-drove his snow pants and coat and was more than thrilled to get to use Dad's snow shovel. When we were decorating the Christmas tree we experimented with me raising him up to put the star on top but alas, he still wasn't tall enough. Henry asked if he could put the star on the tree when he's 14. Next year i'll have to remember to haul up the step ladder for him so he doesn't have to wait that long.

My latest obsessions

So, i've fallen off the posting wagon. I promise to get back on shortly but first i thought i'd tell you what's been keeping me away from the old computer at night. First and foremost there has been the continuing saga of Silas ear infections that won't quite go away (although i think we may have finally found the right antibiotic). Then there's the Christmas decorations to be putting up, the Christmas gifts to be making (i'm getting into needle felting and i'm attempting to make superhero capes for the boys.) Right, of course there's Christmas shopping and then there's www.etsy.com-- my true obsession for the last many weeks.

For those of you that aren't familiar with etsy.com, it's a site similar to Amazon but for the sale of handmade goods. Each seller has their own page or "store" but they're all set up to look the same and navigate the same. You can search in a myriad of ways but one of the best time-wasters i've found yet is the "pounce" feature under by. It shows you a list of 10 items that were just purchased from various stores in the last few minutes as well as several other listings from those stores. Of course you can pop over to the stores to check them out and save stores or specific items to your favorites for later.

It's fun, it's different stuff than you'll see in the mall or a catalog, and did i mention it's addictive. So much so that i have to give myself firm time limits or i'd never get to sleep!

Halloween

We managed to enjoy Halloween with boy boys even though Henry came home the night before with a high fever and feeling terrible. The poor thing just lay on the couch listless until the motrin took effect. We were worried he'd miss trick-or-treating but by the morning he seemed fine and enjoyed his "sick day" home with us immensely!


Although there was a decent amount of belly-aching by Henry about how far it was to walk and how heavy his candy bag was i think he and Silas had a great time. Silas made a trick or treating buddy with Tiffany who seemed to give him just the right amount of confidence to go up to the houses, hold out his bucket and get the candy. The first couple houses we visited he went through the first couple steps but would then pull his bucket back when they tried to give him candy. I think he thought they were going to take something from him. A few houses let him choose and then he was in the groove and ready for the rest of the night. At this point there's a group of kids that ranges from 19 months to 5 years so we were spread out over a 2-block distance for much of the night. Henry and Silas were generally bringing up the rear-- Silas because he's little and Henry because he was just moving along at his own pace.


Henry was very, very good at making his way up the steps, saying "trick or treat" and always remembering to say thank-you. Both boys, but Silas in particular loved rifling through their candy when we got back home to see what all they've had. Henry has found some new motivation to eat his dinner since then and Silas seems to have forgotten all about his candy.

Preparing for Winter

We're still lodged firmly in Fall and Henry for one is very much looking forward to Halloween. Silas is going to be a bat and Henry seems to have settled on being a monkey like he was last year. Unfortunately i got my dates wrong and was amping everyone up for trick-or-treating this Friday and woops, it's next Friday! We're headed over to Tiffany and Mike's house for our annual Halloween gathering and trick-or-treating (and hopefully some good pictures.)

We headed out to the SW suburbs this weekend to meet up with Genine and Ron and their daughters Maia and Eva that are just about Henry and Silas' age. By the end of the night Maia and Henry were having a great time together. Other highlights of the day included the "punkin chuckker" which shot pumpkins hundreds of feet up in the air to land in the lake. Henry and Silas both liked running around the pumpkin patch and "picking" out a different pumpkin every 2 seconds. Silas would try to lift every one up and they were all at least 10 lb pumpkins so i don't think he was successful. Henry had a blast on the tractor ride and almost wouldn't leave the corn maize.

He was not very excited by the dancing skeletons, the witch that had dry ice come out from under her broom or any of the other "scary" things. So i'll let you know how actual Halloween goes!

7 Weeks, 4 Days/ 1 Year, 1 Month, 2 Days

So the big news is that Henry slept in his new bed just fine last night. He didn't have any trouble going to sleep and we didn't hear him at all in the night. He did wake up right at 6 am which is the early side of his wake-up range but he just called out for us until JT went down to get him. I had put pillows on the floor next to his bed in case he fell out, and JT said he was lying on those pillows. So, we don't know if he fell out during the night or had gotten out when he woke up. Either way he wasn't unhappy and got a good night's sleep. Naptime today however, did not go as smoothly. He didn't want to take his nap and he kept getting out of bed. After calling out "mommy" for about 15 minutes he did finally fall asleep, but he only slept an hour. So, at this point i think things have gone pretty well. Tonight he went straight to sleep no questions asked so it might just be naps that are more difficult. We'll see how he does with the babysitter tomorrow-- that might be interesting.

I changed the format of the blog a tiny bit, so you'll find a few new fun features on the right-hand side of this page. Silas is sleeping pretty well at night, but it's amazing how quickly you get adjusted to whatever longer amount of sleep you get-- and frankly it's never enough until it's 8 hours straight and i'm asleep during that same time. I think Silas is making his way towards the 8 week fussy peak-- he's pretty calm during the day but in the evening he's pretty fussy and wants to be held and actually walked a bit. I think i'm going to try to start taking him on a walk when i can in the evening to help make sure he gets a little cat nap. It's just difficult since it's the time when dinner is happening and Henry gets a bath.

Well, speaking of sleep, Silas is getting close to being down for the night so i'm going to wrap this up. Happy 32nd Birthday to me tomorrow! We'll let you know how the Sox do!

7 Weeks, 2 Days/ 2 Years, 4 Weeks, 2 Days

Yesterday Silas and i attempted an outing that i would have never dreamed of with Henry-- we journeyed to IKEA which is in what i consider the far-reaches of suburbia. I believe i mentioned we're planning to convert Henry's crib to a toddler bed this weekend, so i headed to IKEA to get him some new sheets a grown-up comforter and a pillow. While i was there i wound up getting several other things as well including new duvets for both our bed and the guest room and a really cool tent that goes over Henry's bed. We went ahead and assembled that yesterday and although it's not really made to go on the crib (getting in and out is a little tricky) he was so excited about it and wanted to go to bed before i even asked last night. Hopefully the transition to his new bed is as exciting for him.

This Sunday is my birthday and JT managed to score tickets for us to see the Cubs/Sox game. He got them kind of last minute, but we actually managed to get a babysitter as well, so this will be the first time we leave both Henry and Silas with someone other than a family member. Our babysitter Lauren has sat for Henry a few times and starting this Tuesday, she'll be providing us a bi-weekly night out which i'm very much looking forward to!

6 Weeks, 6 Days/ 2 Years, 3 Weeks, 6 Days

It's hard to tear myself away to write this entry because Silas is sitting next to me just smiling away. Really big smiles. This is pretty cool because he's still been a little scare with the smiles most days. These are super big smiles, almost like he's trying to laugh!

We enjoyed a nice weekend mostly at home and now we're heading into a busy week. We've decided to try to install a paver-patio with the help of our friends Corey and Troy, so today i'm hoping to head to Home Depot to see if we can order and have delivered all the necessary materials.

Yesterday i mowed the lawn for the first time this year and learned that although Henry is a fan of his toy mower, the real thing is a little bit too scary for him. I knew it would take me awhile to get the mower started, since it hadn't been used in many months. So Henry was outside with me while i was working on it. I was talking about what the mower is and how noisy it was. Once i got it started i told him again it was noisy and started to make the first turn around the yard-- i looked back to check on Henry and saw him screaming, tears streaming down his face. Off went the mower and i went over to comfort him. After he calmed down i took him over to show him what the mower does and how it cut some of the grass shorter. Then i asked him if he wanted to stay with me and play with his bubbles or go inside with dad. He was pretty clear he wanted to go "side."

Not to make it seem like all i did was work on Mother's day. JT made me breakfast in bed and let me name my wake-up time-- both very much appreciated gestures.

1 Week 5 Days/23 Months 2 Weeks 2 Days

Henry enjoyed his indoor egg hunt and discovering his Easter basket very much. He was also pretty excited to wear his new Easter outfit-- which thankfully included a sweater vest since it is still pretty cold around these parts.

We braved our first family outing for a non-traditional Vietnamese dinner of Pho. I'm happy to report that the evening couldn't have gone better. Henry was psyched for his strawberry smoothie and crackers (what a dinner!) and Silas slept almost from the time we left until we got back home.

Jt plans to head into the office tomorrow to check out what's on tap for the week. He's hoping to stay home a few more days and this way he'll be able to figure out just how much time he can be at home. Henry will head back to daycare tomorrow so Silas and i will be hanging out at home trying to rest and put the house back together and maybe even write a few thank-you notes!